1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a robot control apparatus which controls motions of an industrial robot, particularly to a robot control apparatus which includes a plurality of communication units for communicating with each of a plurality of peripheral devices, and a robot system which includes such a robot control apparatus and an image processing apparatus as an example of the peripheral devices.
2. Related Art
In a robot system as described above, an image processing apparatus generates positional information on a position of an industrial robot, a work position, and the like based on an image of the industrial robot or a peripheral image of the industrial robot, and a robot control apparatus receives the positional information and controls motions of the industrial robot, as disclosed in JP-A-2009-178813. For example, the image processing apparatus causes an imaging unit to take a peripheral image of the industrial robot in response to an imaging command input to the image processing apparatus and saves data of the image taken by the imaging unit on an image memory. In addition, the image processing apparatus executes predetermined image processing in response to a processing command input to the image processing apparatus. As examples of image processing results, a work position, a work shape, and an end effecter position, and the like are calculated. Then, the image processing apparatus transmits the positional information to the robot control apparatus in response to a reception request command input to the image processing apparatus, and the robot control apparatus controls the motions of the industrial robot based on the positional information.
Meanwhile, various control programs executed by the robot control apparatus and the image processing apparatus are generally developed in advance by an external computer for development in accordance with an environment where the robot system is operated, before such motion control for the industrial robot. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a connection state between each apparatus and the computer for development when each of the control programs in the robot control apparatus and the image processing apparatus is developed.
As shown in FIG. 4, an industrial robot 51 included in the robot system is a multi-joint robot in which a plurality of arms 51a is coupled by joint units, for example, and a robot control apparatus 52 which controls the drive of the motor mounted on the industrial robot 51 is connected to the industrial robot 51. A computer 53 for development connected to a network such as Ethernet (registered trademark) is connected to the robot control apparatus 52 via a communication path such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) cable or the like. When a control program for controlling the drive of the motor is created, for example, the robot control apparatus 52 transmits a rotation position of the motor to the computer 53 for development, and orientation of the robot is displayed on the computer 53 for development. Then, the computer 53 for development creates a control program for determining a position and orientation of the robot, and the robot control apparatus 52 stores the control program.
Meanwhile, the image processing apparatus 54 included in the robot system includes an imaging unit such as a smart camera and an image processing device which performs predetermined image processing in an image taken by the imaging unit. Another computer 55 for development, which is also connected to a network such as Ethernet, is connected to the image processing apparatus 54 via a server 56. Generally, the image processing apparatus 54 and the server 56 are configured to have a single case body in many cases. When a control program for controlling various image states is created, for example, the image processing apparatus 54 transmits image processing results by an end effecter 51b and a work w to the computer 55 for development. Then, the computer 55 for development creates a control program based on the image processing results, and the image processing apparatus 54 stores the control program.
Incidentally, in the above connection state where the computers 53 and 55 for development function as controllers in an upper stage, the computer 53 for development creates the control program for controlling the drive of the motor while another computer 55 for development creates the control program for controlling image processing states. For this reason, when various control programs for controlling the drive of the robot system are developed, a plurality of different computers for development are required, and it is necessary to separately secure communication paths for developing the control programs. Therefore, development of such various control programs including communication setting for the computers for development becomes complicated.